iBook Author, A Great New Tool for Documentation

A couple of weeks ago, I alluded to a current project, the composition of an iBook (the Apple version of eBooks that are designed for viewing on iPads only).  This new software was first introduced to me by my brother-in-law, Joe Levine, the co-author of one of the very first iBook textbooks, the best selling high school Biology textbook in the country.  Joe first described the Apple software to me three years ago when it was still in design/development, and he alluded to a project he was working on but couldn't tell me about because it was an exciting top secret!  Turns out the project was the textbook in iBook.  His iBook version of Biology hit the market the day Apple began giving away iBook Author, about a year ago. I've just completed the first draft of an iBook, What Are the Relationships between Animals and Humans, A Year Long Multidisciplinary Research Project by Three to Thirteen Year Olds at The St. Michael School.  I spent the month of October working on it on site with the faculty at The St. Michael School.  Our plan is to continue to edit the book over the next few weeks, then open it for view to parents and a limited outside audience (if you'd like to be among them send a request to ashley@cadwellcollaborative.com.  After the vetting process, we'll publish it at the Apple iBooks website for all the world to see.

Here are a number of reasons I loved working in iBook Author:

1.  Because I am familiar with the Apple word processing program "Pages" and the Apple presentation program "Keynote" I found iBook Author very easy to use.  The format is very similar and the commands are in many cases identical.  Now, I am a Neanderthal in the World of Computers; so, two things: if I can use this program, any one can; and, I am a veteran Mac user and addicted to the Apple One to One program...while in St. Louis I was tutored by teachers at the Apple Store at the Galleria: Sean, Sean, Alan, Ben, Dan and Bob (this is the best $99 I spend all year...I can use it in any Apple Store...Boston or St. Louis...or...).  I know, now you're wondering, How much is Apple paying him?  I wish they were.  I'd gladly accept and give the entire multimillion dollar endorsement fee to The St. Michael School where all the real work was done.

2.  The medium fits the message, to adapt a 70's phrase from Marshal McLuhan.  In this case the message is: Make Children's Learning Visible.

This is the cover of a 37 page book, written and illustrated by a sixth grader for primary grade children.  In her story, the author, Violet advocates for more humane treatment of animals.  Violets classmates each wrote illustrated books.  In the iBook we were able to create galleries that hold scanned reproductions of eight of these books.  Each of them a different story and a different medium.  I can't resist, here is page two of Hope's story, George the Horse:

I insert these two pieces not so much as enticement to ask for more, but as an opportunity to state that in the iBook the whole process of making the illustrated stories are there (in over 200 slides) for the viewing and discerning and wondering and adapting.

This software allows the author to feature children's work extensively.  It has been and will always be prohibitively expensive to publish on paper an expansive documentation of children's works.  That said, of course, there are several wonderfully informative narratives about the process of creating a school environment that stimulates excellent student work.  Two of my favorites are: An Ethic of Excellence, by Ron Berger, and Bringing Learning to Life, by Louise Cadwell (full disclosure: yes, Louise is my wife and partner in Cadwell Collaborative and mother of Alden and Chris and grandmother of Asher).  When I think about what these two authors did with their limited medium, I can only wonder what they'll do when they discover iBook Author.

3.  An expansion of #2...The medium is interactive.  The first draft of our iBook includes galleries (slideshows) with several hundred photos of children making things together, videos of their conversations and productions, transcripts of dramatic productions, photographic and scanned reproductions of books made by students, keynote presentations composed by students, reproductions of "advocacy brochures" composed by students.  All of these works are given context by the teachers' curriculum maps and reflections.  However, relative to the volume of representation of the children's work, the teacher's work is maybe 20%.

The big difference in the first iteration of our iBook and previous documentation of long and short term projects, is that in the past we have tended to focus more on teachers' narratives and reflections, whereas in the iBook we have chosen to take full advantage of the medium; to layout much of the story in photos, dialogue, and in expanded records of the children's creations.  We have consciously chosen to maximize Making the Children's Learning Visible.

Inquiry-Based Projects and Exemplary Student Work

Recently, I spent two days with the faculty of La Scuola in Miami, FL.  We have enjoyed a professional development relationship for several years, linking their work with ours in St. Louis.  Barbie Perez, the founder (with her husband, Miguel) and director, is an exceptional leader and innovator.  She has explored many best practices, particularly the Reggio Approach.  She and her faculty continue to create an exemplary school for children 6 months to 5th grade. La Scuola is an independent school that serves a mostly Latino demographic, so most appropriately, Barbie has chosen to make it a bilingual environment.  Spanish is taught along side English and all of the faculty are bilingual.  This is not only deeply respectful of the families, it also creates complex and rich possibilities for the emergent, inquiry-based, long-term projects that comprise most of La Scuola's curricula.

The focus of my two days with Barbie and her faculty was the project focus for this year: an inquiry that can be summarized in one big question: What is food?

Over the years, the La Scuola faculty has developed a pattern of creating inquiry-based projects.  The relative sophistication of these projects is evident in their extensive practice of writing daily journals for their parents, and in their periodic documentation displayed on the walls that summarized the flow, content and academic outcomes of the projects.

Last year, one of the faculty took her class's investigation of BUGS a significant step further.  She and her class produced a stunning book together, A Field Guide to Insects at La Scuola.  The book is not only beautiful, it also serves a useful purpose: it informs the community about a significant aspect of their natural environment.  The content, learning and skills achieved during this project and the production of the field guide sustained the interest of the children for over six months.

This experience spurred the faculty to create a new initiative for 2012-13: a year long, school-wide investigation/project where each age group/classroom will design a piece that will contribute to the school community and to the community around the school.

Over the two days of my visit, we engaged in pedagogical discussions about inquiry-based projects and about excellent student work using Ron Berger as an inspiration. We also addressed practical planning using a mapping format adapted from the work of Grant Wiggins.  By the end of our time together, each teacher had a curriculum map for the beginning of the year.  The group also established a system for meeting and sharing their successes and challenges (including a protocol for their meetings...to help keep them on track with balanced participation.)  And, finally, each teacher had a general map for the whole year, including a solid idea of what their group might produce as a contribution to the community.

La Scuola has set its sights high and they are prepared for a challenging and fruitful adventure this year.  It will be satisfying to follow their learning and to read their books and guides in 2013.  Read an excerpt from the first day and also a thank you for the work that we are privileged to engage in with schools.

I have been meaning to write to you since you left but as you saw for  yourself we had so much to prepare before the first day of school. I cannot put into words what takes place in our school after each one of your visits. You always leave us so inspired and full of excitement. The teachers worked really hard all week on their maps and setting up their classrooms and preparing their experiences. I cannot begin to tell you what an incredibly WONDERFUL first day of school we had!!! There were children exploring the garden, pulling out carrots which I, myself, wasn't even aware that we had growing, examining their snacks, etc. It was truly wonderful to see. I will send you some pictures soon!

THANK YOU for working with us Ashley!

Barbie Perez, Director, La Scuola

Myth Busters, Challenged Assumptions and Learned for the Future

 

On April 19 and 20 0ver 60 educators gathered in St. Louis for our second annual sustainability education seminar.  This year we set the challenge to "bust several the predominant myths" of education, mental models of reality that are not actually true, and preconceptions that get in the way of meeting the needs of our students and communities.

We explored five myths:

• Independent and public schools do not collaborate
• Students don't do real work in school
• Students are not yet citizens
• Teachers deliver curricula, students receive it
• Tests are the best measure of achievement

From the very outset we experienced that not only can independent and public schools collaborate, but that when they do, their different perspectives and cultures are fertile ingredients for new ideas, like rich organic matter for new seeds.  The faculties at The College School and Maplewood Richmond Heights Middle School worked together for four months, sharing their projects.  The extent of their discoveries became clear during the presentation workshops, each of the six representing a different area of cross-fertilization:

• Making a Difference through Experiential Learning
• Systems Thinking: A Fresh Lens for All Learning
• The Joy of Play-Based Learning
• Water, Water Everywhere
• Dirty Hands, Connected Hearts: Native Plants and Gardening
• Urban Sustainability: Chickenology and Bees

One participant observed: These were great breakout sessions; applicable to all types of educators.

The classroom observations in both schools revealed students doing REAL work in school; taking part in projects that benefited their immediate communities; and collaborating with their teachers, working together to create effective results.  Here is a list of the different classroom observations:

• Education for sustainability through poetry
• Groovin' in the greenhouse
• Exploring rich materials and ideas in the Atelier
• Critical and mathematical thinking with trail mix
• Expedition reflections: How do unique perspectives influence how people see the world?
• Perspectives on Dred Scott - as shared conversation
• Embedding math into problem-based learning: the MRH Bee Business
• Digital storytelling: defining moments

As one participant wrote: the free time to observe both schools was wonderful.  I got many, many ideas and lots of inspiration!

Another wrote: Meeting and listening to the 4th graders articulate their connections between their experiences and their learning in the greenhouse was wonderful.

And another: [One experience especially meaningful to me] is the realization that children are citizens NOW, and that they can play an ACTIVE role in society; and that their actions can change the world!

And one more: Observing a teacher and students and then [after the class] having time to talk with her and the other teachers who were attending with me was practical and meaningful.  The joy in the environment and in the teachers and children was overwhelmingly amazing!!

Throughout the seminar there was much evidence of substantive assessment of student achievement: exemplary student work on the walls of the classrooms and in the hallways, electronic portfolios, and student reflections on progress over time.

One participant wrote: Experiencing the high level of respect for students and their work was amazing.

The generosity of both schools was underscored by their liberal photography policy...cameras were VERY busy.

There was lots of time for interchange among the educators.  As one participant reflected:

It was especially meaningful to me to gather the pearls of wisdom shared by presenters and others attending and share them with my colleagues. At school I never get to talk with my colleagues and here we had time to have meaningful conversations.

Oh, and then there was the FOOD!!!!

The food was fantastic.  I loved the food.

The food was fresh and local...served on REAL dishes!

In the end, the calm community and positive, relaxed atmosphere (created by Bob, Kevin, Louise and Ashley) gave us a sense of passion and enthusiasm.

Imagination, Creativity & Learning: A Field Study in Elementary Education

Earlier this month, I spent an extraordinary week at Opal School of the Portland Children's Museum in Portland, Oregon.  I was there co-teaching a graduate education course through Butler University with Dean Ena Shelley and Susan Mackay, the Director of The Center for Children's Learning. The group of 18 people assembled ranged in age from early 20's to early 60's.  We were administrators, professors, undergraduate and graduate students, and teachers.  All of us were captivated by the different kind of school that Opal is and by the life long learning that takes place there every day.  We focused on learning in three areas: Mathematics, Literacy and Social/Emotional Development.  Before our week together, everyone read To Understand, by Elin Keene, and the first volume of Young Mathematicians at Work by Fosnot and Dolk.

At Opal, we felt as if we were living inside those books as we witnessed students speak with an extensive math vocabulary that they understood, dive into and solve complex problems in pairs that they then presented to peers during "math congress."  "We do not hold anything as truth unless we are all convinced," Mary Gage, one of the math teachers explained to us.  We observed students uncover and savor the meaning and beauty of books that they were reading and invent and craft stories that evolved over days using materials and the arts as well as writing.

We entered into the field of respect and joy that all community members experience at Opal no matter their age.  We saw independent and collaborative thinkers, joyful and serious students, creative and careful learners.  And, we became our own vibrant community of learners in a week-long learning group that carried over into dinner and breakfast conversations and into the night.  Opal has many publications that are now available for purchase that I highly recommend.  Contact The Center for Children's Learning to preview what they have to offer.  The Portland Children's Museum is now host to The Wonder of Learning Exhibit from Reggio Emilia, Italy and they are holding conferences through June in collaboration with the North American Reggio Emilia Alliance.

Opal is indeed a place to encounter the wonder and power of learning in a school where the community commits itself to nurture and develop creative, active citizens who live a rich, imaginative and productive life of the mind and heart.

Schools Are Community Centers

Picking up from last week’s entry on my reconnection with Trung Le, principal at Cannon Design, an architecture firm doing paradigm shifting work in school architecture, I’ll focus here on a basic reformation in the thinking behind school: school as community...school as the builder of community....school as the creative force in community...school as the creator of culture. Carlina Rinaldi, president of Reggio Children, in Reggio Emilia, Italy spoke at a conference we hosted in St. Louis in 2001.  Just when the generations ushering in a new century were filled with all the promise a new beginning brings (like this spring filled with new blossoms and new growth), September 11, 2001 brought our fresh optimism crashing down.  Yet, in the face of that, Rinaldi spoke to over 200 educators to describe schools as the hope for the future; because (and I’m paraphrasing here from notes I took then) schools create culture,  she said; and, she went on, that culture can be insulated among the children doing the creating or it can be all that AND offered to the community where the children live.

Rinaldi points to a profound shift in how we can perceive schools.  The predominant view of schools in the 20th Century was, by in large, that they are factories for producing useful workers.  Rinaldi obviously advocates for something much greater, more essentially generative, more organically part of the whole society.  This latter view is that taken by Cannon Design in renovating Stevenson High School.

At Stevenson, Cannon created several spaces that manifest and support the mission of school as community, both internally and externally.  Two spaces, in particular, dramatically represent this point.

The first is the central commons, shown in the photo below.  Note: several levels in the one open space, natural light from the clerestory windows, distinct smaller areas within a much larger whole, easy passageways throughout, dramatic view points from which one can take in the whole, nooks and crannies where one can retreat and still be part of the whole.  The Stevenson Commons is a remarkable space.  And, to top it off, note the quote from a Stevenson student below...we are proud to be environmentalists....

The other space I'd like to feature is an ingenious redesign of an interior connection between the upper floor library and a lower floor common study area.  Rather than restrict the passage from one space to the other in a typical enclosed concrete stairway, Cannon opened and expanded the area to essentially couple the library with the lower area, making it all one space, though separated by floor level...and the separation is actually a visual connector...a stairway...but it is a stairway, stage, meeting place.  Notice how the students are using it!

The photo below is the lower floor common study area, complete with computer stations.  The stairs/stage/gathering area is to the left in the photo.

Rethinking the design of schools with spaces for students and adults to congregate, think and imagine together is to build a container to accomplish the vision that Rinaldi shared: schools create culture.